The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco

“San Francisco in 1900 was a Gold Rush boomtown settling into a gaudy middle age…. It had a pompous new skyline with skyscrapers nearly twenty stories tall, grand hotels, and Victorian mansions on Nob Hill…. The wharf bristled with masts and smokestacks from as many as a thousand sailing ships and steamers arriving each year…. But the harbor would not be safe for long. Across the Pacific came an unexpected import, bubonic plague. Sailing from China and Hawaii into the unbridged arms of the Golden Gate, it arrived aboard vessels bearing rich cargoes, hopeful immigrants, and infected vermin. The rats slipped out of their shadowy holds, scuttled down the rigging, and alighted on the wharf. Uphill they scurried, insinuating themselves into the heart of the city.” The plague first sailed into San Francisco on the steamer Australia, on the day after New Year’s in 1900. Though the ship passed inspection, some of her stowaways—infected rats—escaped detection and made their way into t...

Author: Chase Marilyn

ISBN: 9780375504969

Year of publication: 2003

Genre: Historical science fiction

Number of pages: 294

Reading time: 4 h. 54 min.

Formats: FB2, EPUB, PDF

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